Practical Exercises for Comparing News Stories Across Platforms

Here are practical exercises for comparing news stories across platforms that can be used to develop critical media literacy and analytical skills:

1. Identify False Equivalence and False Balance

   • Present students with pairs of news headlines or excerpts from different platforms. One should demonstrate false equivalence (treating unequal claims as equal) and the other false balance (giving equal weight to unequal evidence).
   • Ask students to discuss which headline or story is misleading and why, focusing on whether the comparison or balance is fair and supported by evidence.
   • Use a checklist to evaluate: Are the compared items truly similar? Does the evidence justify equal weight? Is there a credibility gap between sources?
     This exercise helps students recognise misleading framing and improves critical evaluation skills.

2. Newsworthiness Comparison Game

   • Provide pairs of news stories from different platforms covering similar events but with varying emphasis or detail.
   • Students rate which story is more newsworthy and explain why, using criteria such as impact, timeliness, prominence, or proximity (the “Big Four” factors of newsworthiness).
   • This can be turned into a timed group competition to encourage engagement and discussion about editorial choices and platform biases.

3. Cross-Article Narrative Comparison

   • Use a structured approach to compare how different platforms narrate the same event:
     • Break down articles into paragraphs and sentences.
     • Identify narrative features such as framing, subjectivity, and word choice.
     • Link similar sentences or paragraphs across articles to find corroborated or omitted information.
   • This method highlights differences in framing, emphasis, and potential bias across platforms.

4. Platformization and News Access Analysis

   • Compare how different platforms (e.g., social media vs. traditional news websites) present the same news story.
   • Analyse the role of platform algorithms in shaping news exposure and how this affects the diversity and depth of news coverage.
   • Students can track the same news item across platforms and note differences in headlines, story length, sources cited, and multimedia use.

These exercises can be adapted for classroom or workshop settings to foster media literacy, critical thinking, and awareness of how news varies across platforms. They encourage learners to question the fairness, accuracy, and completeness of news stories rather than passively consuming information.